


6 years

by VEC_16_04



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:17:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VEC_16_04/pseuds/VEC_16_04
Summary: 6 years is a long time, or isn't it?First day of the academic year, it is always a special one. Even after 12 years.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm getting back into the habit of writing. So it might take a few chapter before it all starts to making sense.   
> But I hope you guys already get to enjoy this one.

First day of the academic year, it is always a special one. Even after 12 years! Hope enjoys her cup of coffee while looking out of her office's window. One of the perks of working at this university is for sure the view. Getting to watch the waves break over the rocks, the rhytmic coming and going of the ocean ... well it is safe to say that is why she arrived late to a class or meeting for more than a couple times.   
  
“Hey Hope, we’re still on for tonight, right?” Carli asks while walking in Hope’s office, catching her friend off guard. Hope has the habit of leaving her door open whenever she’s in her office. At the beginning of the year, when no one of the students is making their way up to the top floor, she doesn't expect much people coming to see her up here.  
“Of course we are, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Hope answers.  
“Good” Carli replies while stealing one of the water bottles on Hope’s desk before joining her fried on the couch.  
  
“Did you already get a look at the results Ertz sent in?”  
  
“Not really, I quickly scanned over them when I first got them. But I haven’t had the time yet to really go through them. They are on my schedule to read through before the end of the week.”  
Hope nods and switches the subject to something less academic. Wanting to spend a couple more minutes being just an adult before she has to go stand in front of a new bunch of students.   
  
    
  
“I still can’t understand why you volunteer to give the 8am classes on Monday.”  Carli says, when Hope’s 7.55am alarm rings.  
“You’re also already here so why not teach a class.”  
“I’m here because it is nicer to run alongside the ocean than it is to run near my place. And well between being here and teaching a class at 0800 on a Monday that is something completely different."  
"It is actually not that bad. Now almost everyone will be there, then from next week on the people that don’t manage to wake up early won’t be there so you know, less people bothering me while I’m talking.” Hope replies while packing her purse.  
  
“Yeah, you might be right. But I would still never do it.” Carli says and empties the bottle of water.  
  
“Enjoy your run.”Hope says while closing her office.  
“Thanks! Good luck in class” and with that the two good friends part ways.  
  
Hope throws a quick look at her watch, 0758, she better hurries up. Hope slows down before she strides into the class room. She knows that walking down the stairs, she’ll have lots of eyes following her. While setting up the computer, Hope already quickly scans over the room. Almost all students are attentively watching her and waiting for class to begin. Hope has to suppress a smile, opens today's powerpoint and starts the lecture.  
  
   
  
   
  
As usual on the first day of class, Hope looks around the aula while talking about the ecliptic. It's a subject she could talk about while finishing her 30 mile run. She scans over the faces of the new students, her mind already judging on who will be here for the  next 12 weeks. She knows she shouldn’t, judging her students like this. It is wrong, but still. She likes to see and check if she’s turns out to be right. Somewhere around her explanation of the parallax one particular students catches her attention. Something about the student is familiar. Her mind is so busy trying to figure it out that she almost forgets to make her joke. She smiles, after all the years, it somehow still resonates with the new students. With that, she takes one last glance before moving on. Cause it couldn’t be her, right? She’s is supposed to be a few thousand miles away. Not that she has been keeping track.  
   
  
“So that’s it for this session. Don’t forget to read the text I put up on blackboard by next class.” And with that, Hope’s voice is overshadowed by the noise of all the students packing their bags. “Have a good first day of class” She mutters underneath her breath and returns to the desk. She keeps busy, not wanting to walk out in between the mix of students.   
  
   
Hope is surprised to hear footsteps walking down the stairs, but for the moment she keeps her eyes on the screen in front of her, typing in some remarks on the lecture so she knows where to start next week.  
  
   
  
“Miss Solo”  
For two seconds, Hope didn’t move, her fingers hovering above the keys. Her heart started beating faster, seemingly already knowing what her mind still had to catch up to.  
“Kell?” She asks in surprise.  
“Hi” the other woman replies, smiling.  
Hope takes in the woman standing in front of her in, she looks good. Tanner then the last time she saw her. Also more mature. That sparkle still present in her eyes, making it look like she had something up her sleeve at all times. And that smile, well it is still the same. Feeling like she might have stared for a second to long, Hope coughs.  
 “Hi. How-, how are you doing?” Hope manages to get out in a stuttering way.  
“Good. It has been a while since I last was here.” Kelley says looking around the aula. Not only remenising the last time she was here but also checking if there are any students that haven't yet finished packing up their stuff. The room is empty, she already knew that cause she waited for the last student to walk out before making her way down the stairs.  
  
“Six years” Hope breathes  
“Six years” Kelley repeats, “How have you been?”  
“Me? Good, busy.” Hope replies, not sure where Kelley wants to go with this and also totally not prepared to be facing the woman.  
  
   
“Listen, I know that the first weeks are the busiest ones and this is probably not really the time nor the place, but I was wondering if you might have some time left this week or the next one to go out….to, to go get some-” the younger woman pauses for a moment before looking at Hope “to go get some lunch together? If the observation deck is still free?”  
  
It took Kelley goddamn all but a couple minutes to make her feel that giddy again. Why couldn’t she have asked to go out for dinner like a normal person? But no, she had to go for God damn lunch.  
  
The woman standing in front of her looked confident, at least confident enough to ask her out here. But seeing how she stumbled and started over a couple times, she might not be as confident as Hope thought she was.  
“Yeah. Yes I do have some time free. Would love to.”  
  
   
  
“So, I’ll see you Wednesday, at our regular spot around 1240?”Kelley asks,   
"See you on Wednesday.”  
“Good luck with the classes. And if you ask me, you’re still a pretty damn good lecturer.”  
Kelley is already halfway up the stairs when Hope calls her back,    
“Did you just sit through 2 hours of class to ask me out on a lunch?”  
“Yes I did, a bit of revision never hurt anyone” Kelley replies with a smile and with that she turns back around and walk up the stairs and out of the room.  
  
   
  
Hope couldn’t help herself and watched Kelley all the way until she was out of sight.  
Damn, after six years this woman still makes her want to feel more. Be more.  
“Why in hell did you say yes?” Hope says out loud, to no one in particular, except for herself.


	2. Why can't I be both?

 

If there is one thing that she remembers about Kelley O’Hara is that the woman knows how to throw a curve ball. Hope should have seen this one coming though. Still Kelley showing up in class, that is not something she had expected.

  
So after cruising on auto pilot for the next two hours of class Hope walks down to the basement instead of going up to go get her lunch in her office. She quickly changes into her running gear and stuffs everything in her locker.

Once outside she pops in her earbuds, music maybe one click to loud and she starts running at definitely a too quick of a pace.

 Hope knows that skipping lunch will have Carli harassing her with questions. But she rather faces Carli once she managed to wrap her head about this morning rather than having to face Carli now, unprepared and tell her about Kelley Fucking O’Hara. Cause it might have been 6 years ago, Hope still remembers every single detail of the first conversation she ever had with Carli about Kelley.

 

 

***Flashback to Carli confronting Hope about Kelley O’Hara 6 years ago.***

 “A student. YOUR STUDENT! God Hope, what were you thinking?” Carli had been happy to see her friend do better again. But thinking that was only because she’s sleeping with a student. Well it makes her feel sick.  
“SHE IS NOT MY STUDENT!”  
“She is not my student” Hope repeats, “She stopped being my student long before-”  
“Long before what? Long before you started sleeping with her.”

Hope takes a moment. Her mind is currently doing a race with a tachyon but she also knows that not everything she might say is going to help her case. So she tries to slow her mind down before continuing the argument.  
“It’s not like that”  
“Oh no? Then please. Enlighten me.”  
_Clearly the moment of pause didn’t help to calm Carli down._  
“You remember the vernissage at the museum I went to?”  
“yeah”  
“Well she was there to. At first I don’t think she recognized me. Then with the open bar, we ended up talking and it felt good. You know, for once it was just me again. You know just two women out talking, no pity looks, no questions. Just the two of us and a bottle of scotch.”

“She makes me feel like a 25 year old again. With her, all this. It doesn’t matter” Hope adds.

 “Jesus Hope. You’re not 25 years anymore. You can’t just fuck around like that. You are a 40 year old mother of two children, a widow. You are a god damn professor at her uni.”

“You don’t think I know all that? It’s been two years and I still can’t go visit my mom without all the people I come across in the village looking at me with pity. As if the funeral was just yesterday. What is wrong with wanting to be both? Why can’t I be an almost 40 year old widow, mother of two children, professor but also a lover who feels like she is 25 years old and loves life?”

Carli could see it though. She didn’t agree but she understood. The coworkers Hope was closest to noticed that she seemingly moved on, or at least coped better.

She had been more relaxed, more happy.

None dared to ask though. Cause after all she is still Hope Solo.

She kept on going at the ridiculous pace she started after her wife died.

She took on some more research though, Carli figured it wasn’t just to keep busy but to also earn some more money. Cause she presumes that a large part of the "big" money Hope earned before becoming a lecturer was all spent on medical bills. They never talked finances but knowing the amount of dollars a few hospital bills can mount up to. Well, it would send almost anyone looking for a job with a bigger salary.

But these last weeks, Hope seemed more balanced. As if she had found her way again outside of work. As if once again, the two kids and her job weren’t the only important things in her life.

“Why her?”  
“Oh come on Car. As if you don’t look at her whenever your calculations are questioned and you need to verify your answer. She is intelligent, good looking, older and more mature than one thinks at first. And well she was there that night at the vernissage.”

It wasn’t the answer Carli had been looking for. Cause it was too elaborate, Hope was already in too deep.

“What are you going to do?” Hope asks, wondering if she’ll have to go look for a new job.  
  
“About what?”  
It took Hope a second to understand the true meaning behind Carli’s reply. Carli won’t tell but she also is not going to protect her when things go south. Unfortunately Hope couldn’t blame her for that.  
“Thanks!”  
“If I would ever hear about such a situation. I’d advice them to break things off.”  
  
Hope nods.

 **END of flashback***

 

Only, Hope actually needs Carli as her sounding board so well she doesn’t really get anywhere. Except out of breath, with her legs and lungs on fire, 5 miles off campus.

 

 

 


End file.
